Agence France Presse
GENEVA, April 10 (AFP) - WTO members discussed measures for boosting confidence within the world trade body here Monday, including how to improve market access for the poorest countries, but did not reach any concrete conclusions, trade sources said.
In a report to an informal meeting of the the World Trade Organisation's General Council, Director-General Mike Moore said: "We are making useful progress in a number of areas, but there is more that we can realistically hope to achieve in others."
He set out in February to hold consultations on four "immediate priorities" to get the ball rolling again after last December's WTO ministerial conference failed to launch a new round of trade liberalisation talks.
Discussions referred Monday to a proposal by the United States, European Union, Japan and Canada, which includes granting the poorest under-developed countries tariff-free and quota-free treatment on "essentially all" goods, trade sources said.
But a number of under-developed countries expressed disappointment at the proposal.
Pakistan said it included no major concessions, and textiles and agriculture were excluded, so it raised the question of what the least-developed countries stood to gain from any deal, sources said.
The other three "priority" areas were reinforcing technical cooperation and funding, the issue of how to deal with the expiry of deadlines set to allow members time to bring their trade rules into line with WTO agreements and transparency.
Moore said on the issue of transparency, he believed "a lively and productive discussion" was underway but it was unclear how far it would produce specific points of agreement by the next WTO General Council meeting May 3.
Consultations on all four issues are to continue until May 3.:
